basal cell growth rate questions

A couple weeks ago I was diagnosed with bcc on my face. I had, what I thought, was a pimple that I picked and it got infected. A few weeks later I got a biopsy as it would not heal. It came back positive for bcc. I will have surgery the end of Nov. beginning of Dec. The surgeon is very good but very busy hense the long wait time for surgery. My question is, how fast does bcc grow? It seems this thing came on fairly quickly for such a supposedly slow growing cancer. If this spot on my face heals over and goes away before surgery (Idoubt it will but.....) how will the surgeon know what to cut and how much to cut? Can it be x-rayed?

I also have a growth inside my ear canal that has been causing me repeated ear infections over the past year. The infections are coming more and more frequently and seem to be only 3 weeks apart where they used to be 6 - 8 weeks apart. Can this growth down inside my ear be a bcc or does that just grow on the surface of the skin where the sun has damaged the skin? I ask because my bcc of the face is on the same side as the ear that keeps getting infected.

Yes, I know...these are questons that I should, and will, be asking my doctor. But my ENT appointment is not for another 2 weeks and I want answers now.

I am sorry to hear about your BCC and your ear problems. My last BCC grew very fast too. It seemed like less than two months. The dermatologist who did the biopsy was not the MOHS surgeon who did the rest. On the day of the MOHS I pointed out where the BCC was. It was fairly easy to spot since it was still a little red. He only had to take one small slice to obtain clear margins. Who knows, maybe the biopsy got it all, but I was not gambling on it.

So don't worry about it growing fast because of your late appointment. The MOHS doctor numbs the area that you specify and takes a small slice of tissue and examines it under the microscope. He continues doing this until he has clear margins. Since your BCC grew fast, you should luck out with one or two slices. They do this in order to minimize scarring on the face. The first BCC I had was on my nose and it took 4 times to get clear margins. It was a slow growing BCC and resembled a skin colored mole until it started to bleed and not heal.

I am no expert on ears, but I don't see how BCC in your ear would cause infections. The BCC I have had never became infected. They just never healed. I believe that BCC is only caused from sun damage.

Good luck on your MOHS and resolving your ear infections. I always hate it when you have more than one thing wrong with you at a time. It makes you feel like you are falling apart.

LOL, thanks for your reply. I have since made an appt with my gyn too. Doctors have become my new best friends! Thank goodness my job has been pretty supportive so far! Let's see how much longer they tolerate me taking one day every two weeks off for doctor appointments

Wahoo!! Just got a call from the surgeons office. They are scheduling me for surgery to get this thing off my face Tuesday!! I'm scared and excited. I am a baby about pain but I want this thing off my face in the worst way!! I'll be glad to get it over with.

I had my surgery yesterday. It was a little more than I was expecting. The spot on my face was slightly larger than a pencil eraser. I now have a 2" incision on my face. It's swollen and ugly looking but the doctor assures me it will be nothing more than a white line once he is done with it. The good news is they got all the cancer in the first try. I go back to see him to get the stitches out (all 18 of them!!) and for some cosmetic surgery on the ends of the incision to even it out. This has really reinforced the fact that I can NEVER sit out in the sun, that I will always wear a hat while outdoors and that I will use sunscreen as my skin lotion from now on. I have always loved the feel of the warm sun on my skin and now know that as good as it feels, it is EVIL!!

I had a big, bloody, oozing, black and red bcc on my chest. Do a search and type in: "basal cell doesn't spread" and see what you get. I still have a very tiny scar from where he cut it out right in his office. He looked at me over his glasses with this ominous glare: "you've had this a long time."
oh; this was 24 years ago.